Weather Hampers Search for Utah Scout

SALT LAKE CITY – A search resumed Tuesday for a 12-year-old Boy Scout missing in the Uinta Mountains (search), but chilly, wet weather has dimmed hopes that rescuers will find him alive, officials said.

Garrett Bardsley (search) of Elk Ridge was last seen Friday morning, when his father, Kevin, sent him back to the scout troop's camp after the boy got his shoes and pants wet while fishing, said sheriff's Capt. Joe Offret.

"The likelihood of finding a responsive individual at this point is extremely low," Summit County Sheriff Dave Edmunds said Monday.

Since Friday, the Mirror Lake-Pass Lake (search) area, about 53 miles east of Salt Lake City, has had freezing overnight temperatures, intermittent hail and daytime temperatures hovering only in the 40s.

On Monday and again Tuesday, officials limited the search to professionals out of concern for the safety of untrained volunteers in the poor weather and rugged conditions, Offret said. Volunteers had taken part over the weekend.

"We haven't given up hope. We don't want to leave Garrett on this mountain," said Kevin Bardsley, his voice breaking. "We want to bring him home."

The campsite has been described variously as 150 yards to a quarter mile from the lake on a well-established path. Bardsley said his son wanted to return to the camp and said he knew the way.

Garrett, who was wearing sweat pants, a T-shirt and a hooded sweat shirt, had no provisions or backpack, and the possibility the boy has died of hypothermia (search) is very real, officials said.

No longer assuming Garrett can hear people calling, searchers were checking under logs and rocks where he might have sought shelter.

Last September, Carole Wetherton, 58, and her daughter, Kimberly Beverly, 39, vanished in the same general area when the weather turned bad. Fragments of their remains were not found until June.

It was a happier outcome last month, when another Boy Scout, a 13-year-old, got separated from his troop during a backpacking trip and spent two days hiking alone before rescuers found him.